Defying Truce, Egyptians Clash at Morsi's Palace

An Egyptian protester throws a live tear gas canister fired by Egyptian riot police during clashes outside the Egyptian presidential palace in the suburb of Heliopolis in Cairo on Friday.
Getty Images

By

Matt Bradley

Updated Feb. 1, 2013 10:04 p.m. ET

CAIRO—Violent confrontations between police and protesters in Egypt's capital and other cities continued for an eighth straight day Friday, defying an agreement by some Islamist and secularist political leaders to end an outbreak that has already taken at least 50 lives.

Thousands of demonstrators converged on Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo and on the streets around Egypt's presidential palace to protest against President Mohammed Morsi's efforts to expand his powers.

By nightfall, fierce altercations had broken out in front of Mr. Morsi's palace, where masked demonstrators lobbed Molotov cocktails and firecrackers at police officers and over the high palace walls.

Police responded by firing volleys of tear gas. In one incident broadcast on television, police could be seen beating a protester while stripping him of his clothing. Egypt's presidency said they would begin an investigation into the incident.

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Protesters throw stones and Molotov cocktails at security forces inside the presidential palace during clashes with police in Cairo on Friday.
Reuters

Friday's fighting unfolded against a backdrop of back-and-forth recriminations and failed negotiations between secularist and Islamist political forces in Egypt, as well as between protesters and the politicians who claim to represent their demands. The lack of compromise has polarized Egypt and driven its economy to the brink of collapse.

"The narratives that are taking place are so divorced they may as well be different countries," said Hossam Bahgat, the founder and director of the Egyptian Institute for Personal Rights and a prominent liberal activist.

"These kids are not going to go home unless there is the feeling that something has changed," said Mr. Bahgat of the rioters.

Friday's rioting came despite an agreement signed Thursday by prominent members of Egypt's Christian and Muslim religious communities, secular-leaning youth leaders and Islamists allied with Mr. Morsi that committed its signatories to peaceful political expression.

Al Azhar, a thousand-year-old Islamist university that is considered the seat of Sunni Islamic learning, sponsored the 10-point agreement

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Egyptian riot police fire tear gas at protesters demonstrating in front of the presidential palace in Cairo on Friday.
AP

But the rioters didn't appear to take their cues from any of the signatories, including the National Salvation Front, a coalition of secular politicians who oppose Mr. Morsi and his Islamist backers.

"The Al Azhar document is a big lie and an attempt from the government to quell public opinion without meeting the demands of the people," said Mohammed Suleiman, 38 years old, a demonstrator who was standing a few blocks from the presidential palace on Friday evening after fleeing a growing cloud of tear gas.

Mr. Suleiman and others said their protests were aimed at bringing down Mr. Morsi and his supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood in much the same way Egyptians forced former President Hosni Mubarak to step down two years ago.

But unlike this week's fighting, the 18-day revolt that started in early 2011 was a broad, national movement that remained largely peaceful.

The lack of an explanation for the surge in grass-roots anger has led to a blame game among opposing political factions.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the leader of the NSF and one of the Al Azhar signatories, said Friday that the fighting was the result of Mr. Morsi ignoring the NSF's demands that he devolve power to a pluralistic "salvation government," amend the country's Islamist-friendly constitution, and replace the attorney general he appointed in November.

A few hours later, Mr. Morsi's office blamed the violence on "political forces," an apparent reference to the NSF. The office said these forces were inciting attacks on the presidential palace, and called on these forces to condemn the violence, pull back their followers from Mr. Morsi's residence or face a "decisive" response from security forces.

But Islamist and secular political elites appeared ill-equipped to stop the violence, as the clashes appear to be attempts to settle accounts between protesters and the police.

The fighting began last Friday when peaceful protests against Mr. Morsi's rule on the second anniversary of the uprising called by opposition leaders devolved into clashes, particularly in the city of Suez.

The following day, a Cairo court sentenced 21 soccer fans, mostly residents of the coastal city of Port Said, to death for their role in a soccer melee a year ago that killed 74 people.

When Port Said residents tried to attack the prison housing the accused, they set off a week of deadly riots across the country.

"I see what is happening in Egypt as very similar to Tom and Jerry," said Mr. Suleiman, referring to the children's cartoon that depicts a violent and interminable fight between a cat and a mouse. "It is inconsistent, illogical, and everybody is working and implementing whatever they want with one faction dominating to the exclusion of others."

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